The Chiefs were leading by a touchdown with less than a minute left in the half. After a Texans missed field goal, it was a prime opportunity for the Chiefs to “double-up” as they can score to close out the half and open up the second half with a score. Patrick Mahomes proved why he is one of the best quarterbacks in the game and he led the Chiefs offense to do that in a typical explosive offense manner. The Chiefs nailed a field goal to make the score at halftime 17-7 and then opened up the second half with a well-executed drive that was finished off with an incredible Clyde Edwards-Helaire touchdown run (one where he cut to the middle of the field after breaking through the line to shake off the last defender in his path). This put the game away. For all intents and purposes, the Texans being down 24-7 meant that the game was all but over.
The Texans jumped out to an early lead with David Johnson scoring the first touchdown of the game and one that felt redeeming in more than one way (he dropped a third and ten check-down pass and was part of the De’Andre Hopkins trade after having three disappointing years in Arizona). After taking the lead, the Texans fell flat, allowing the Chiefs to score 31 unanswered points. Deshaun Watson was able to lead the Texans to two scoring drives in the fourth quarter but they were far too little and far too late.
As a kickoff game, this was a dud. The game was one-sided and it was over after the Chiefs took the 17-point lead. The best thing about this being opening night, is we don’t care. This game didn’t have to be great for us to be appreciative of it. Opening Night left us feeling hopeful and grateful that we made it and we now have a season.
The past six months have felt like an eternity with a pandemic that seemed to freeze time. Sports were canceled and it felt like we weren’t going to have an NFL Season at times. The free agency went on like business as usual and so did the draft, but the uncertainty of an NFL Season left us at unease as us sports fans had little to turn to. There hope would wax and wane as we saw sports return in Europe but then heard that all the preseason games would be canceled, we started to get sports slowly integrated into our lives with the NBA and NHL giving us bubble or hub city formats but then we’re reminded that there was a reason to be concerned as the MLB saw early team outbreaks that sidelined them. Well, now we have a season!! The sport that we love most is back and even if the games aren’t the best ones we have seen, we will still watch and relish in the fact that we have games to look forward to.
There will be storylines tomorrow. We will hear about Clyde Edwards-Helaire being the next great running back and how the Texans are in trouble or how the Chiefs picked up this season as they left off last season or how the game looked normal despite it clearly being a shell of normalcy. What is vital is Football is Back!! It could be argued that if the other three major sports would have played but football would have been canceled, it would be worse off then the other way around. We live and breathe Football and while there will be struggles along the way, we know that we are likely to have a season, which is something that we all have been looking forward to.
